ILLINOIS SCHOOL OF AGRICULTURE AND MANUAL TRAINING FOR BOYS
An institution for the training of dependent boys organized under the act of march 28, 1895 which was in effect a re-enactment of the statute approved in 1883 and amended in 1885. Is legally defined object is to provide a home and proper training for such boys as may be committed to its charge. Commitments are made by the County Courts of Cook and contiguous counties.
The school is located at Glenwood in the county of Cook and was first opened for the reception of inmates in 1888. Its revenues are derived in part, from voluntary contributions, and in part from payments by the counties sending boys to the institution which payments are fixed by law at ten dollars per month for each boy, during the time he is actually an inmate.
In 1898 nearly on-half of the entire income came form the former source, but the surplus remaining in the treasury at the end of any fiscal year is never large. The school is under the inspectional control of the State Commissioners of Public Charities, as though it were an institution founded and maintained by the State. The educational curriculum closely follows that of the ordinary grammar schools, pupils being trained in eight grades, substantially along the lines established in the public schools. In addition a military drill is taught with a view to developing physical strength, command of limbs, and graceful, manly carriage.
Since the Home was organized there have been received (down to 1899), 2,333 boys. The industrial training given the inmates is both owning a good, fairly-sized farm and operating well equipped industrial shops for the education of pupils.
A fair proportion of the boys devote themselves to learning trades, and not a few develop into excellent workmen. One of the purposes of the school is to secure homes for those thought likely to prove creditable members of respectable households. During the eleven years of its existence nearly 2,200 boys have been placed in homes, and usually with the most satisfactory results. The legal safeguards thrown around the ward are of a comprehensive and binding sort, so far as regards the parties who take the children for either adoption or apprenticeship. The welfare of the ward always being the object primarily aimed at.
Adoption is preferred to institutional life by the administration, and the result usually justifies their judgement. Many of the pupils are returned to their families or friends, after a mild course of correctional treatment. The system of government adopted is analogous to that of the "cottage plan" employed in many reformatory institutions throughout the country.
An "administration building" stands in the center of a group of structures, each of which has its own individual name:
Clancy Hall
Wallace
Plymouth
Beecher
Pope
Windsor
Lincoln
Sunnyside
Sheridan
While never a suppliant for benefactions the Home has always attracted the attention of philanthropists who are interested in the care of society's waifs.
The average annual number of inmates is about 275.